Just Sleep
by luckbringer
Summary: The Doctor and Rose enjoy each other's company as they watch a comet pass by. But what happens when Rose wakes up in the middle of the night, screaming? One-shot.


Notes: The Doctor is either Nine or Ten (your choice). This would have taken place sometime in between aired episodes.

"Are you ready?"

"No."

"Open the door."

She did, and she gasped. "Doctor…it's beautiful."

It was. The Doctor had been planning this moment for awhile now, and the Rhinestone Nebula was just as he remembered it: thousands of comets glittering in its web of purple gases. They swirled around a white sun like stars in a dizzying, majestic dance. Tonight was an exceptionally beautiful night, because the Stratman Comet was slowly flying straight though the galaxy and bathing everything in a red glow. He walked to the TARDIS door and sat on its edge, shoulder to shoulder with Rose, feet dangling out over empty space. They sat there in silence, watching one comet brush past another with the gentle touch of a lover's kiss.

The Doctor said, "The Rhinestone Nebula. That's hydrogen and oxygen gas making the purple color, and those glittering specs are the comets." Rose leaned on his shoulder and he did his best to keep calm. _She's just leaning on your shoulder_, he thought, _nothing more. She's probably tired—it _had_ been a long day_. He continued, "Although they appear to be orbiting their sun very closely, the comets are actually hanging on by a thread of gravity. One solar flare and poof! A chunk of comets are flung out to space. And that's the red Stratman Comet, named after Stratman the Bold, one of my good friends. More like his great uncle, in fact. Funny, that. Anyway, it only comes to this side of the galaxy once every—" It was at that moment that the Doctor realized that Rose was asleep.

He smiled down at her sleeping form. She looked so young, and so small, but the Doctor knew that that wasn't true; she wasn't the same girl he had said "run" to all those years ago. She had changed, and, as the Doctor liked to think, for the better. He tried his best to calm his fast-beating hearts, but to no avail; maybe her sleep was so deep she couldn't hear them. The Doctor attempted to ignore that fact that she had fallen asleep while he had been talking—and during a beautiful outer-space phenomenon, too!—and succeeded. Even he was beginning to feel exhaustion from the day's running, or maybe that was due to the fact that Rose had such nice steady breathing.

_I'll just stay 'til the end of the show_, he thought, and he shifted himself so his right arm was around her shoulders. He watched the Stratman Comet fly through the heart of the Rhinestone Nebula in contented silence, conscious of Rose and her ability to snuggle closer to him while asleep.

When the Stratman Comet had passed out of sight, taking its red glow with it, the Doctor stood up as carefully as he could. He shut the TARDIS door, carried Rose all the way back to her bed without waking her up, and tucked her in safe and sound. He smiled at her, and then left to go to his own bed down the hall, trying to remember the last time he had had a good night's sleep.

Only hours later, the Doctor was woken by Rose screaming, "DOCTOR!"

She was screaming it at the top of her lungs repeatedly, and he was running out of his room as fast as his legs could carry him. He was sure that something had gotten her. Some alien had snuck on board the TARDIS and was sucking his dear Rose's life away and he would arrive at her room seconds too late. Her lifeless body would be lying shriveled up on the floor, and both his hearts would break at once.

But when he stood in her open doorway, he saw that he had been mistaken. Rose was not dead at his feet but was instead thrashing around in her bed like one possessed. _A nightmare_, he thought; he'd had plenty of those, especially immediately following the end of the Time War. But the Doctor went to her side as swiftly as if she had been on the verge of death.

"Rose?" The Doctor said. She tried to take a swing at his face, but the Doctor grabbed her flailing wrists tightly. Her eyes were closed, which meant that she was still asleep. "Rose! Rose, wake up! It's me, the Doctor! Wake up!"

Suddenly Rose drew in a breath as if to scream again, and her eyes shot open. She stared into the Doctor's eyes for a moment, as if she could not recognize him, but then relief spread across her face. She whimpered, "Doctor…" and fell into his arms.

The Doctor didn't know how much time they spent sitting on that bed, huddled in complete darkness, he embracing her with all his strength, and she hugging him just as tightly. Her tears came quickly and steadily, falling every time she took a huge intake of air and no doubt ruining his clothes, but he didn't care. He wondered if he should kiss her; she was clearly in a state of shock, maybe that would make her better. It seemed to work well when humans did it. But the Doctor didn't kiss her, and just went right on hugging her. When someone goes through something as terrible as a nightmare, sometimes all they need is a tight hug and a shoulder to cry on.

Then Rose's grip went slack, and the Doctor knew that she had fallen asleep again. He laid her back down on her bed and was about to leave when Rose's grip tightened on his arm. Understanding, he sat down again beside her and held her hand. Even after she was well and truly asleep, and her breath had changed to cute little snores; even though he felt his own eyelids drooping; he stayed.

And all through the night there were no nightmares, no kisses, nothing else; just sleep.


End file.
